Pen Argyl Area High School's boys track program is early season surprise

Express-Times Photo | JIM MIDDLEKAUFFPen Argyl's Austin Witmer competes in the long jump during a meet with Palisades and Palmerton in April 2010.

When it comes to struggling track programs in The Express-Times region, right at the top of the list -- or the bottom, depending on how you look at it -- is Pen Argyl Area High School's boys program.

The Green Knights came into the season with a two-year 22-meet winless streak and was facing five-time defending champion Wilson Tuesday in Pen Argyl, a program Pen Argyl had not beaten since 1998, a 13-year stretch of frustration.

But there's more. Pen Argyl has never won a league championship in boys track in its 36 years in the Colonial League as well as its time in the old Lehigh-Northampton League dating to the early 1940s.

"In fact, I remember someone telling me that Pen Argyl has never even had a winning season in boys track in its school history," said Jim Giovanni, who's entering his third season as the Green Knights' coach. "I don't know if that's true or not but that's what they tell me."

But Pen Argyl whipped Wilson 81-69 to give the surprising Knights a 2-1 start on the season. No one is anointing Pen Argyl as the odds-on favorite to win the Colonial League but it definitely puts a different trajectory on the Green Knights' season.

BOYS TRACK ATHLETE OF THE WEEK:

Name: Bryan Pearson

School: Bangor Area High School

Class: Junior

Statistics: Pearson, a sixth-place medalist in last year's PIAA Class AAA discus, threw 176 feet, 5 inches Tuesday in the Slaters' 89-61 loss to Notre Dame. That broke his school record and put him in the No. 7 spot all-time in the region. Pearson also threw 50-3½ in the shot put, the first throw over 50 feet this season.

The reasons for Pen Argyl's struggles are simple to enumerate. They struggle to get football players out for the program, the school's cinder track is among the worst in the region and the numbers are usually low.

"We have 44 boys out for the team and that's the most since I've been here," said Giovanni, a permanent substitute teacher at the high school. "In the past we've been in the low 30's."

Pen Argyl has some star athletes led by pole vaulter Austin Witmer, who's cleared 14 feet in both of Pen Argyl's meets this season, and Geoff Baum, who's throw of 176-8 in the javelin ranks first in the region so far this spring.

Nevertheless, both seniors are more specialists than multi-event athletes, so the Green Knights don't get a huge number of points out of either senior. Instead, they have to depend on other athletes to pick up seconds and thirds in a lot of different events.

"Everybody talks about how bad our track is but to be honest with you, I don't think it's that big of a deal in terms of getting kids out," Giovanni said. "This year we have a couple of pretty good sprinters -- and that's an area we used to get killed in -- and our increased numbers help us do a better job of covering the events."

Those two sprinters are Anthony Gentile and Greg Woerner, whose range extends from the 100 to the 400 meters.

Who knows? This might be the magical spring where Pen Argyl finally gets that winning season.

Record-breakers

Easton's Colin Abert burst on the scene in cross country this past fall and he's gotten off to a great start so far this spring on the track.

GIRLS TRACK ATHLETE OF THE WEEK:

Name: Jade Kubitsky

School: Bethlehem Catholic High School

Class: Junior

Statistics: Kubitsky ran 59.8 in the 400 meters Monday in a 89-61 loss to Liberty to become the first girl to break the 60-second barrier this season in the event. She also ran 26.3 in the 200 and anchored the Golden Hawks' 1,600-meter relay team that ran 4:16.0, also the best time in the region this season. Honorable mention: Sr. Amy Darlington, Liberty; Jr. Jane Lukas, Nazareth; Jr. Mary Paige Nesfeder, Notre Dame; So. Elizabeth Chikotas, Saucon Valley; So. Jamie Weagley, Hackettstown.

In just his second meet of the season, he turned in a 4:31.2 clocking in the 1,600 meters, beating Lehigh Valley Conference cross country champion Nathaniel Palmer (4:34.9) of Freedom by 25 meters in what were the two fastest times of the year. Abert, a ninth-grader, has an excellent shot at the region's all-time freshman record of 4:24.7 set by Southern Lehigh's Tim Erickson in winning the 1999 District 11 Class AAA title.

Palmer, however, is establishing himself as the top guy so far in the 3,200. He's run three races at that distance and has been under 10 minutes every time, including a 9:47.4 Thursday against Northampton.

Palmer's got a good shot at Freedom's school record of 9:40.4 set in 1977 by John Makuvek Jr.

Speaking of school records, Saucon Valley sophomore Elizabeth Chikotas ran 11:36.0 Tuesday in the Panthers' 105-45 win over Salisbury, breaking the Panthers' school and track record in the 3,200.

Legacies

Kendall Weedling, a senior at Southern Lehigh, is the No. 2 ranked girls 400-meter runner (1:01.0) in the region and her father, Jim, is an assistant coach with the Spartan program. Jim Weedling was part of the 1977 Parkland boys mile relay team that ran a converted 3:18.2 at the PIAA Championships that still stands as the fastest relay team in region history over one mile or its 1,600-meter equivalent.

Spartan head coach Brian Souerwine also has the top-ranked 3,200-relay team in the region (8:30.3) and two of those members -- Ryan McGinty and Jacob Krafczyk -- are sons of Bob McGinty and Mike Krafczyk, who made up half of the 1983 Southern Lehigh 3,200 relay team that ran 7:46.69 at the PIAA Championships. That time also still stands as the region record in that event.